Pulver Is Wrong to Dismiss Russian Threat

I am compelled to write in response to the insane "gaslight" logic of Matthew Pulver in his recent Trumpkinland column (Jan. 18). To assert that he would rather have a "duly elected president" than a subversion by "deep-state spooks” begs credulity.

First we must deal with his word choice. "Duly" as an adverb modifying “elected” implies “in a proper way.” Absent any alleged involvement by foreign players, reasonable citizens should be concerned that our electoral processes are not conducted in anything close to a "proper way." That one tribal faction domestically is hell bent on subverting our democracy through voter-suppression methods is sufficient to dash that illusion.

The more concerning implication, though, is that we should ignore the elephant in the room of Russian "deep-state spooks.” Putin was in the KGB and has orchestrated global atrocities as the head of state since those days.

The salacious memo was really beside the point. It was an attachment to more comprehensive intelligence briefings on a wide range of Russian interference in the election. One can and indeed should be highly skeptical of U.S. intelligence agencies. But there was a salacious report that was widely known and distributed that could be used against the U.S. such that it was deemed appropriate that senior members of our government should know about it. Period. Full stop. To conflate "leaks" of verifiable facts as somehow subversion of our democracy in the face of an enemy’s known actions to subvert all Western democracies is not illogical; it is crazy stupid.